As you may be aware, 2GB has basically been running a campaign of miss-information about coal seam gas (CSG) for a few years now. Primarily driven by Alan Jones, easily influenced 2GB personality Chris Smith has also jumped on the anti-CSG campaign. Today Andrew Bolt alluded to the irrational fear of CSG on Chris Smith’s programme, and it was obvious that Smith felt uncomfortable with what Bolt was saying and the interview promptly ended. Now Ross Greenwood has invited Santos on to his programme to outline CSG operations in NSW. Alan Jones basically refuses to speak to pro-CSG advocates because they ‘keep telling lies’, or something like that. This will being to isolate Alan Jones from within 2GB on CSG and hopefully end the media campaign against CSG in NSW.

Another Ruddllard scandal, this time about Australia’s bid for the soccer world cup. From Fifa’s ‘ethics’ committee.

Australia also made efforts to woo Warner and Oceania chief Reynald Temarii, including providing money for development projects. In relation to Warner, the report states it “identified certain payments from the Football Federation of Australia (Ffa) to Concacaf which… appear to have been co-mingled, at least in part, with personal funds of the then Concacaf president [Warner] who at the time also was a Fifa executive committee member.”

Incredibly Fifa has cleared Qatar of any wrong doing, which probably shows how corrupt Fifa is itself.

You may be aware of a series of racy and racist emails sent by Federal Senator Nova Peris when she was a public servant. What is being called a sex-for-taxes scandal basically involves Peris organising a trip to Australia at tax payers expense for a former athlete she clearly had a conflict of interest as a result of an extra martial affair they were carrying on. If there was a Federal equivalent of ICAC, Peris would be referred to it for investigation. In the emails Peris clearly lobbied her colleagues to approve the trip along with top up payments for the former athlete. Involving one self in a procurement or grant process when one clearly has a conflict of interest with the intended recipient is grounds for dismissal in the public service. Peris though is part of a nu-aristocracy, people that by virtue of either their race, gender, sexual preference, etc.. are able to live off others and are above the law and criticism. So Peris is unlikely to be brought to justice. From Quadrant magazine.

When there’s a conflict of interest between you and the thing you’re trying to get money for – in this case, from grants bodies set up to benefit disadvantaged Aboriginal people – then you declare it to your employer and step aside. A concept that basic is beyond dispute

I’m not sure we are doing a whole lot of good in Iraq at the moment. The RAAF seems reluctant to launch bombing raids into Iraq and when they do they are fairly minor in nature. We are unwilling to deploy ground troops in Iraq, for good reasons, but lets not pretend that air strikes are going to get the job done. For reasons that are no exactly apparent, the Federal government is also unwilling to go after the same terrorists in Syria. We are also being led from behind by Obama, who does not exactly have a strong track record in Iraq. It was his hasty withdrawal from Iraq which is why we are back in Iraq. And what about NATO member and regional neighbour Turkey? They are yet to take any practical military steps to stop the terrorists from becoming stronger, so I can’t see a strong national interest reason on why we would. The Federal budget is also meant to be in crisis, but the Federal government is not acting like it. I’m no peacenik but lets be honest – we are not achieving much in Iraq because we either can’t or don’t seem to won’t to. So why are we there to begin with?

“My basic contention is that something that has been found to be safe in a reliable jurisdiction shouldn’t need to be tested again here,” he said in the letter. “If a drug is needed for a valid medicinal purpose though, and is being administered safely, there should be no question of its legality. And if a drug that is proven to be safe abroad is needed here, it should be available,” he said in the letter.

And what if a drug is found overseas not to be safe? Tony Abbott is basically soft on drugs, once again confirming his labor-lite credentials.

Have Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones fallen out over coal seam gas (CSG)? It is unconfirmed at this point, but every time Bolt posts on the ridiculous campaign against CSG, a certain Alan of Sydney responds in the comments pushing the same ill-informed and unsupported line that Alan Jones of 2GB pushes on the radio. You be the judge, from today with the announcement that NSW is effectively extending the ban on CSG. Bolt wrote, “Another politician sacrificing jobs to pander to a green scare’.

I’ve just returned from a Queensland outback holiday.

CSG mining extends from Toowooomba to Roma.

The locals fear not just the loss of the most fertile cropping an grazing land in the world, but they fear for their water. The contamination of the aquifiers cannot be undone. What took millions of years to create cannot be remedied overnight after the benzine and cyanide and salination destroys the water.

Along the Warrego Highway between Oakey and Chinchilla, heaps of coal are stacked along the roadside. Massive mountains of it. Not wetted down, the coal dust is free to blow for kilometers where it pleases.

This is criminal. A local gas reservation policy will end shortages overnight and this mad rush for mining for export can become sane again.

Normally, I agree with Andrew but his position on CSG is uninformed and frankly dangerous given his ignorance and large soapbox.

2GB radio personality Alan Jones has been running a campaign against all things coal seam gas for a few years now. His commentary is well meaning, but it is clear he does not understand the environmental, engineering and legal issues around CSG. I’ve been covering his anti-CSG campaign for a little while now. Other conservatives have largely avoided buying into the CSG issue and have not overtly criticised Alan Jones for this pro-green anti-development campaign, but things are starting to change.

Peter Reith, who has been pro-CSG for a couple of years now:

Under former premier Barry O’Farrell, NSW had been largely paralysed by green campaigners who totally opposed any fossil fuels and had been given a platform by radio commentator Alan Jones. Nearly all their claims have been largely debunked by independent scientific advice from the likes of GeoScience Australia and others.

Andrew Bolt, in reference to NSW’s ban on CSG at the behest of AJ:

Those who fall for green mysticism and unreason should pay the price themselves. Call it a tax on stupidity.

I have heard Bolt criticise the anti-CSG movement on radio sometime ago. This from last week:

This is not the first time Australian governments have strangled useful industries by pandering to baseless green scares. We have virtually banned nuclear power. We banned lucrative nuclear waste facilities to take in spent fuel rods from overseas. We’ve hampered the use of genetically modified crops. We imposed a useless carbon tax on coal-fired power generators and helped to drive smelters out of business.

This is madness, and a lack of political courage and principle is to blame.

Reading through the responses to Bolt’s post it is clear that readers blame Jones for his hysterical campaign of miss-information.